Launch Day !!

After nearly 1 1/2 years I launched my Port Sorell skiff today. In the last three weeks I painted the interior, varnished the bright work, took a few days off to fish, and mounted the hardware. Yesterday I completed installing the rope rub rail and rolled the boat out on the drive way to take some photos. The launch today was on a small local creek with very protected waters and the boat was in the water only a few moments (just long enough to take the attached pictures) as today was quite stormy and I did not want to venture to far from the launch.

Since my last update, I finished varnishing the oars (five coats), and finished painting the floorboards. The final coat of paint on the floorboards had non skid compound mixed with the paint. In between paint coats on the floorboards I laced the oar leathers on the shafts. The leather kits came with a strip of thick steer hide. to make the buttons, but there was not enough to do all four oars. I spent yesterday learning to tie turks head knots and completed the oars with them instead of the leather strips. The opposite end of the leather was served with whipping twine to help keep the leather from curling up.

Getting started again

After a nearly 4 month break I started some work on the rowing skiff again. The winter here was unusually wet and cold, so any paint or varnish work was difficult to do outdoors. This past Friday I decided to work on the oars which arrived around Thanksgiving. I began by weight the oar handles. Four 1/2" holes were drilled in a scrap 2x6 and molten lead was poured inside. After the lead cooled, the wood was split apart with a saw and chisel and the lead weights were sanded down and test fit into another holed drilled in the remaining scrap wood. Thickened epoxy was applied to the end of each oar, and the weights were inserted. I allowed the glue to dry

overnight, and filled a few voids with fairing compound (top photo). After the fairing compound cured a few hours the oars were sanded, wiped down and the ends of the blades were painted blue to match the sheer stripe on the hull. On Sunday the first coat of varnish was applied to the oars and a second coat was added this afternoon. The ends resting on the saw horses will be varnished later.

Interior primed

This weekend a few days of good weather gave me an opportunity to get the interior of the boat primed. I trailered the boat to my brother's house on Sunday where we hooked up his compressor. We sprayed on two coats of the water based epoxy primer. I left the boat there until Tuesday to allow it to thoroughly dry before bringing it home. I also allowed it to sit today to give the epoxy more time to cure as the temperatures have been cool this week. Tomorrow I start sanding the primer, this will be (hopefully) the last major sanding job on the hull before it is launched. The photos give an idea of the boats final appearance as the primer color is very similar to the color of the finish coat.

On Solid Ground

On Monday night Tropical Ida came through, The building shelter did not survive. The frame stayed in place but the poly tarp panels were shredded and tattered. On Friday I disassembled the tent. The open area gave me my first opportunity to photograph the boat from the side. Later that evening my brother helped me move the boat underneath the carport where I will finish it. While he was here we taped off an area under the rub rail for the sheer stripe which I painted this weekend. I thought that would be the final task before flipping the hull to paint the inside, but the paint on the transom was damaged in the storm by a flapping tent panel and will be repaired this week.

Top Coat on

This past week I finished the graphite coat, applying a coat Mon., Tues. and Wed. afternoons. Wednesday night after the last coat had time to stiffen I removed the masking and tape. I allowed it to cure Thursday and sanded the edges on Friday. I then washed and dried the hull, wiped it with denatured alcohol and began taping and masking again. That afternoon I rolled on the first coat of paint, Petit Easypoxy Pearl Gray. I applied the second and third coats yesterday and today. I began painting at noon to give dew in the tent time to evaporate. I am going to let the paint harden for a few days then mask the boat so that I paint the sheer stripe below the rub rail.

Last round of sanding

Finally, the outer hull has been sanded for the last time. This weekend I sanded the primer that was applied last week. I spent 2 days sanding the boat by hand. This morning I washed the boat with dish soap, towel dried it and gave it wipe down with denatured alcohol. I then began taping a line that I hope will be near the waterline for the graphite epoxy mixture that I am applying to the bottom. Three more layers of tape were applied over the first layer, each one staggered by 1/4" so that each coat will extend past the previous. By doing this I hope to avoid having a high ridge of epoxy to sand down before painting. A layer of plastic was then taped to the boat to keep stray drops and runs of black epoxy off of the sides of the hull. I took a break for dinner and rolled on the first coat, finishing at sunset. In a few hours I will go out and remove the first tape layer before the epoxy completely hardens.